Medicine in Second Life: virtual doctors, hospitals, and of course, sperm donation

This is the second post about Second Life, the virtual world where medicine has a special place. In the first post, I wanted to describe what kind of educational possibilities Second Life has on the field of genetics. Now I wanted to know more about how medical information and health itself are organized in this artificial world.

There are just a few hospitals, most of them are totally empty as there are just some places where you can get injured. And if you die, then you register again and get a new resident. But I’ve found a virtual doctor and his hospital, Lundquist Hospital whose note says:

This hospital is the base of Dr. Jude Lundquist, a real-life doctor based in the United Kingdom. He offers free and confidental advice in the following areas…

What do you think? The question of reliability is raised again. Would you trust a virtual doctor? Even if his real-life doctor statement is true. I asked him to answer some of my questions, I’m still waiting for his answers. Below, his profile:

But here is an extremely positive example: Ann Myers Medical Center. Dr. Ann Buchanan envisions a place where Docs/Interns/Nurses/etc can train with virtual patients in diagnostics and bedside manners. One of the builders told me about that they’re still recruiting people who would be interested to take part in this work. It’s incredible! I join them to see how I can help.

It’s a real dream medical center with plenty of rooms and equipments.

The main goal is not to teach medical students how to become a surgeon, but to help them learn how to organize patients even in a complicated situation.

What I loved the most was the opportunity to hold meetings. In an international collaboration, it’s always hard to gather everybody in one place (and it’s expensive as well), but in Second Life, you can make great meetings. Look at the image below, you can sit down, upload a presentation and talk to your group. It could even be used in school classes.

According to the National Review of Medicine, the American Cancer Society and US Centers for Disease Control are early adopters. They consider Second Life as an educational opportunity they just couldn’t pass up.

Many resources, many chances to learn, libraries, databases, anything you can imagine (and anything you can create):

And yes of course, even if it’s a virtual world, it’s made by humans:

I’m going to follow medical things in Second Life and will let you know when something interesting happens. Until then, don’t misst these blogs:

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